Exploring

Partnerships in the EXPLORING gateway are working on the beginning pieces of formulating a partnership: convening the right people, committing to a common cradle-to-career vision for all kids, establishing the right tables to get the job done, selecting community-level outcomes to hold the partnership accountable and ensuring sustainability through selecting an anchor entity to support the work.

Key Considerations

Engage multiple sectors in the partnership, including but not limited to:

Philanthropy

Business

Early childhood education

K-12 education

Postsecondary education

Public sector

Community-based organizations

How have the members of the leadership table demonstrated their commitment to the partnership?

How frequently is the leadership table convened?

What are the different tables of work groups within the accountability structure?

What are the different roles and responsibilities outlined as part of the accountability structure?

The partnership formalizes a set of messages that are aligned and effectively communicated across partners and the community.

Key Considerations

What are the key messages that the parnership would like to communicate about its work?

How are the key partnership messages communicated across partners?

How are the key partnership messages communicated across the community?

partnership

A group of organizations, systems and stakeholders who come together to jointly move a cradle-to-career agenda in their community. Several sectors need to be represented within the partnership including: early childhood education, K-12, higher education, community-based organizations, philanthropic, public sector and business.

geographic scope

Needs to be sufficient to impact population-level outcomes, policy and funding decisions.

leadership table

Group of cross-sector CEO-level members of the organizations participating in direction setting of the partnership; must include: K-12, higher education, philanthropic and business leaders.

accountability structure

The organizational framework that depicts the different teams within the partnership and outlines the roles and responsibilities of each.

messages

Formalized statements about the partnership developed for a specific audience to effectively communicate a common understanding of the vision, purpose and work.

community

Individuals in the defined geographic scope who are directly affected by the quality of the education pipeline, and therefore must be clearly understood, actively involved and eventually satisfied by the impact of the partnership.

Key Considerations

What core indicators has the partnership selected to measure the community-level outcomes?

community-level outcomes

Academic points along the cradle-to-career education continuum that are proven to be key levers that need to be moved in order to achieve the cradle-to-career vision and goals. Non-academic community-level outcomes may be selected in addition to academic community-level outcomes. (e.g.: kindergarten readiness).

core indicators

The specific measures that are being used to track progress on moving the community-level outcomes and have been agreed upon to be the main metric, or one that directly measures an outcome. (e.g.: % of students assessed ready for kindergarten upon school entry)

Key Considerations

How has your partnership demonstrated a commitment to continuous improvement to guide its work?

continuous improvement

An ongoing effort to improve services and supports for children and families over time in order to improve a community-level outcome. These efforts can seek “incremental” improvement over time or “breakthrough” improvement all at once.

Pillar 4: Investment & Sustainability

An anchor entity is established and capacity to support the daily management of the partnership is in place.

Key Considerations

What organization(s) is playing the role of anchor entity for the partnership?

Why is this organization appropriate for this role?

What capacity is in place to support the daily management of the partnership?

The partnership engages investors to support the operations and collaborative work of partners to improve outcomes.

Key Considerations

What potential funders has the partnership identified to support its operations and collaborative work?

How have funders been engaged?

anchor entity

An organization or entity that commits to acting as the fiscal agent and ensuring the partnership’s long-term stability. Can provide additional functions such as housing partnership staff.